* son.' Where he speaks of comparing Lysander to Sylla, ■* There is d, fays be, no Comparison, either in the Num

* ber of Victories, or in the Hazard of Battles; for Ly

* sander only won two Naval Victories, Off.' This is not to derogate from the Jlomans; for, having only simply named them with the Greeks, he can have done them no Injury, whatever Disparity soever there may be betwixt them: And Plutarch does not weigh them intirely one against another; there is no Preference in the main , he only compares the Pieces and Circumstances one after another, and judges of every one separately j wherefore, if any one would convince him of Partiality, he ought to pick, out some one of those particular Judgments, or fay, in general, that he was mistaken in comparing such a Greek to such a Roman, when there were others more sit, and better resembling to be parallelled.

CHAP. XXXIII.'

The Story if Spurina.

PHILOSOPHY thinks she has not ill imployed her Talent, when (he has given the Sovereignty of the Soul, and the Authority of checking our ff^etbtr th Appetites to Reason. Of these, they who amorous Apfejudge, that there are none more violent than titesantbe those which Love breeds, are of the Opinion, mifi'v'o!e*t

* that they seize both Body and Soul, and possess the

* whole Man -,' so that Health itself depends upon them, and is the Medicine sometimes constrained to pimp for them: But it might be said, on the contrary, that the Mixture of the Body brings an Abatement and Weaken. I" M m ■ 3 ing
jng to them, for such Desires are subject to Satiety, and capable of material Remedies.

* In the Comparison of Pompty with Agifilatu.

* In his Comparison «f Sjlla and Lxsandtr,

Many being determined to rid their Souls from the conrj' tmual: Alarms of this Appetite, have made Z^/ytbZ Useof lesion ar>d Amputation of the restless and unruly Members; Others have subdued their Force and Ardour, by the-frequent Application of cold Things, as Sriow and Vinegar: The Sackcloths of our Ancestors were used for this Purpose, which was a Cloth woven of Horse-hair, whereof some made Shirts, and others Girdles to torture their Reins. A Prince, not long ago, told me, * That, in his Youth,

* upon a solemn Festival in the Court of King Francis I,

* where every-body was finely drefied, he would needs « put on his Father's Hair Shirt, which was still kept in

* the House •' but, how great soever his Devotion was, 'he had not Patience to wear it till Night, and was sick

* long Time after; adding withal, 'That he did not

* think there could be any youthful Heat so fierce, that

* the Use of this Receipt would not mortify •,' and yet, perhaps, he never tried the most violent; for Experience ihews us, that such Emotions often happen under coarse beggarly Cloaths, and that a Hair Shirt does not always render those innocent that wear it. :l

Xenocrates proceeded with greater Severity in this AfHe<w Xeno- fa'r > f°r his Diiciples, to make trial of his crates prefers- Conrinency, having flipped Lais, that beauty h-s Conti- tjfuj and famous Courtezan, into his Bed, plncy' quite naked," Xenocrates finding, without the

Charms of her Beauty, and her alluring Philtres, that, in Spite of his Reason, and philosophical Rules, there was a War rising in his Flesh, he caused those Members of his to be burned, that he found consenting to this Rebellionc: Whereas the Passions, which wholly reside in the Soul, ps Ambition, Avarice, and the rest, find the Reason much more to do, because it cannot there be relieved but by Hi own Means •, neither are those Appetites capable of Sa? tjety, but grow sharper*, and increase by Fruition,

Th?

f piog, Lacrt, Lifts Use of Xtnyrate.s, lib, iv, seft, 7* ...

The sole Example of Julius Cæsar may suffice to demonstrate to us the Disparity of those Appe- , tites; for never was Man more addicted to J^Æ"'* amorous Delights: Of which on» Proof; the that Ambitiut delicate Care he took of his Person, to that »* bard* to be Degree as to use the most lascivious Means to *?** thmthat End, which were then practised, viz. to have the Hairs of his Body twitched off by Pincers, and to be daubed all over with Perfumes of the extremest Curiosity •, and he was a beautiful Person in himself, of a fair Complexion, Tall and Sprightly, Full-faced, with brisk hazle Eyes, if we may believe Suetonius f; for the Statues, that we fee at Rome, do not, in all Points, answer this Description. Besides his Wives, which he four Times changed, without reckoning the Amours of his Childhooa with Nicomedes, King of Bithynia, he had the Maidenhead of the renowned Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, witness the little Cœsario that he had by her %. He also made love to Eunoe, Queen of Mauritania -, and, at Rome, to Postbumia, the Wife of Servius Sulpitius; to Lollia, the Wife of Gabinius; to I'ortulla, the Wife o'F Crajsus; and even to Mutia, .,Wi£e to the Great Pompey; which was the Reason, the Roman Historians fay, that (he was repudiated by her Husband, which Plutarch owns he did not know: And the C#nVs,t>oth Father and Son, afterwards reproached Pompey, when he married Cæsar's Daughter, 'That he

* had made himself Son-in-Law to a Man who had made

* him a Cuckold, and one that he himself was wont to

* call Ægystus V Besides all these, he kept Servilia, Cato's Sister, and Mother to Marcus Brutus, from whence every one believes the great Affection he had to Brutus did proceed, by reason that he was born at a Time when his Birth was likely to happen. So that I have Reason, methinks, to take him for a Man-extremely given, to this Debauch, and of a very amorous Constitution: But the other Passion of Ambition, with which he was also exceedingly in

M m 4 fected,

'In the lAfe of Juliut Cesar, sect. 45.

* Plutarch in the Life of dr/dr, c. 13. sect, $0.

hSuttmitti in Cæsar's Life, icct. 250.

fcctcd, arising in him to contend with the former, soon compelled it to give way.

And here calling to mind Mabomet, who subdued ConThe Example Jiantinople, and totally exterminated the Grecf Mahomet clan Name, I do not know where these twa umber Proof, paffl0ns ^re f0 evenly balanced, being equally an indefatigable Lecher and Soldier; but where they both meet in his Life, and jostle one another, the quarrelsome Passion always gets trie better of the amorous Passion; And this, tho' it was out of its natural Season, did not regain an absolute Sovereignty over the other, till he came to be very old indeed, and unable to undergo the Fatigues of War.

What is related, for a contrary Example, of LadijlausyJ notable Ex- King oi Naplesyis very remarkable; that, ample, proving being a great Captain, Valiant and AmbiLove to be tious, he proposed to himself, for the princijbonger than paj £nd of his Ambition, the Execution of his Pleasure, and the Enjoyment of some rare Beauty, which he obtained, and thereby his Death •, for having, by a close and tedious Siege, reduced the City ■of Florence to so great Distress, that the Inhabitants were glad to capitulate; he was content to set them free, provided they would deliver up to him a most beautiful Virgin, whom he had heard of in their City. They were forced to yield her to him, and by a private Injury to avert the public Ruin. She was the Daughter of a Physician of Eminence in his Time, who, finding himself involved in so foul a Necessity, resolved upon a high Attempt; for as every one was setting a Hand to trick up his Daughter, and to adorn her with Ornaments and Jewels, to render her agreeable to this new Lover; he also gave her a Handkerchief, most richly wrought, and pf an exquisite Perfume, (an Implement they never go without in those Parts) which she was to make Use of in their first Approaches. This Handkerchief, which he bad the Art to poison, coming to be rubbed between the chafed Flesh and open Pores, both of the one and the cither, so suddenly infused its Poison, that their warm Sweat 1' fov«
soon turned into a cold Sweat, and they expired in one another's Arms.

But I return to Cæsar: His Pleasures never made him steal one Minute, nor turn one Step aside from Occasions that offered for its Aggran- is^fTM* disement. That Passion was so sovereign in hindered Cæhim, over all the rest, and with such ab- &*V VieTM os solute Authority possessed his Soul, that it gjS^* guided him at Pleasure. In earnest, it trou- •''

bles me, when (as to every Thing else) I consider the Greatness of this Man, and the wonderful Parts wherewith he was endued, learned to such a Degree, in all sorts of Knowledge, that there is hardly any one Science of which he has not written: He was so great an Orator, that many have preferred his Eloquence to that of Cicero; and he, I conceive, did not think himself inferior to him in that Particular -, for his two Anti-Cato's were chiefly writ to counter-balance the Eloquence that Cicero had expended in his Cato. As to the rest, was eve/ Soul so vigilant, so active, and so patient of Labour as his? And, doubtless, it was embellished with many rare Seeds of Virtue, I mean, Innate and Natural, and not put on.

He was singularly sober, and so far from being delicate in his Diet, that Oppius relates, how * that,

* having one Day at Table physical, instead Sainely" 'of common Oil, in some Sauce let before

*" him, he eat heartily of it, that he might not put his

* Entertainer out of Countenance'.' Another Time he caused his Baker to be whipped, for serving him with a finer sort of Bread than common. Cato himself was wont to fay of him, * That he was the first sober Man that

* took a Course to ruin his Country.' And as to the fame Catoh calling him, one Day, Drunkard, it fell out thus: Being both of them in the Senate, at a Time when Cataline's Conspiracy was in Question, of which Cæsar was suspected, one came and brought him a Letter sealed up: Cato., k believing that it was some Intelligence from the Conspirators, 'called to him to deliver it into his